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Well, I use Linksys as my router. When I access my wireless control panel, I can view the DHCP client table, which shows the active IPs on the router. That should let you know what devices are accessing the router. If you're concerned about, that someone has cracked your encryption somehow or whatever, could you use a wireless MAC filter? That way you can specify only your computers can access.

router encryption is a bit of a joke. I use it too because you are almost obligated to. My neighbor left his network unincrypted and I was able to leach off of his internet to run some more torrents one night, but I told him the next day to encrypt his stuff so people do not use his line for kiddy porn or whatever and get him in serious trouble.

But if someone really wanted your internet they can crack that key very easily.

But like bob said, you can easily see everyone connected to your network. Your router will probably give you the ips and you can see that if there are too many ips then there is a problem. If your router does not tell you then just check your network thru my network places -> view entire network. You can view all of the machines on the network. If that fails for some reason ping
ping 192.168.0.100, 101, 102, 103, 104 if you start pining ips sequentially and get more ips than machines then there is a problem. I used 192.168.0.10* because that seems to be the common way routers assign ips.

Well, I use Linksys as my router. When I access my wireless control panel, I can view the DHCP client table, which shows the active IPs on the router.

Not always so. The DHCP list will only show you users who got an IP from the router. If they set up a manual IP with the gateway to the router, they will NOT be on that list. I know, because I was jackin some guys connection, and he had a Linksys WRT54G, and I set up my IP to be 192.168.0.111 (I also needed a static IP to open my Bittorrent ports so I could piss the RIAA and MPAA off on his connection ) and I wasn't on the DHCP list. He couldn't get rid of me because he had no idea I was there.

On some routers, such as most NETGEAR routers (notably the WGR614) there is an option "Attatched Devices" that will show ALL of the computers connected, even those manaully configured.

My advice is, if you want to keep someone out, WEP or WPA, non-default SSID/password, MAC filtering, hide your SSID and maybe even use FakeAP. And do a google for "The Definitive Guide To Wireless WarX'ing" by Slayer and read it. Near the bottom there are some security guidelines.

And oh, BTW PeOfEo... that pinging won't always work either. If they have a software firewall, your pings will just get blocked, and it will look like there is nobody there. Same with the Network Places thing.

You guys think that you are seeing everybody, but in reality, you might not be. Esspecially with those linksys routers where you can only see DHCP clients, and not manual clients. As far as I know, however, you can't hide from the Netgear "Attatched devices" list.

And if someone is going to jack wifi access, Linksys WRT54G's are the best to get, because you can hide from the list, and you can also flash their firmware with HyperWRT or any of the other custom firmwares and up the sig. strenght which will allow you to get a better signal. Plus, if there are other people freeloading off of it, and you can figure out who the legit owner is, you can block everybody's MAC but yours and the owner's, and split the bandwidth 50/50.

However, my Linksys router has a log, which I believe tracks all conections. I havent seen anything suspicious, but if I did I'd use fitering. Like anything else, if you take the time to properly configure, it'll be safe.

Thread: How do you know if someone's stealing your wireless?

Ahh, that a great point. You can use the log.

But I'd sure as heck hate to have to browse through my log to see if anybody was connected. The guy I connected to, though, I don't even think he knew there was a configuration/admin page, because he still had the default password/SSID. So I changed the admin password. That way, even if he ever did suspect a freeloader (he never did), and wanted to check the logs to get their IP/MAC/whatever, he would have to reset the router to get in, thus clearing the logs.

But, since I'm assuming you're not an idiot and have a non-default password, the log-check should do just fine.

aame w/ my neighbor across the street. I was able to load hit network up with torrents. I eventually told him that his network is not encrypted (did not tell him about the torrents) and that he did not have a pass on his router even. He paid me to make his router work correctly. I had him put in his own pass when he was done.

Well that's true too... I asume you're talking about a hardware firewall, and not a software firewall installed on a client... obviously that wouldn't do much good as far as detecting wireless intruders.

There are also some programs out there I've seen that you can use to monitor router connections. I've never used them, so I can't really comment on their usefulness.

Sorry for the plug - but you could install our free WIFI internet access blocker at http://www.myWIFIzone.com. It alerts you when it blocks an unauthorized user. Beta test version only so expect a few bugs...